Increasing demand for more powerful and convenient data and information communication has resulted in the proliferation of a number of wireless communication technologies. Within the field of wireless communications, a number of industry standards and operational protocols have been developed to address the interoperability of disparate devices and equipment within a single wireless network. Many such standards and protocols provide for some basic inter-peer communication regarding device configuration and operation. Commonly, such communication is provided in the form of one or more messages passed between peers during the course of system operation.
This peer-to-peer messaging may be utilized to communicate a variety of operational information amongst members of a RAN, including information concerning equipment and software variations and revisions. As technologies and standards progress and evolve, individual components throughout a RAN may be changed or updated at irregular intervals. A single network may thus comprise a variety of components of differing ages or generations, utilizing multiple protocols, standards, or revisions thereof. One critical interoperability aspect of peer-to-peer communication, therefore, involves the sharing of information concerning the hardware or software version or revision of a given component.
Consider, for example, the general architecture and operation of a wireless Radio Access Network (RAN). Within a typical RAN, a Packet Data Serving Node (PDSN) is connected to one or more Packet Control Functions (PCFs). A messaging interface is provided between a PDSN and its associated PCFs for communicating operational information. Within a wireless RAN based upon a CDMA2000 standard (a registered trademark of the Telecommunications Industry Association, TIA-USA), for example, certain peer-to-peer communication between a PDSN and a PCF may be provided by a signaling interface (notated A11) and a bearer interface (notated A10).
Messages used on an A11 interface to setup and maintain an A10 bearer connection between peers often change with new releases of the governing standard(s). Depending upon which version or revision of the standard(s) a particular PCF/PDSN software is based upon, the corresponding PCF/PDSN interface may support different component features, or different formats for A11 signaling messages.
Under conventional protocols, unfortunately, such indication of version or revision features is communicated on a connection by connection basis. This means that version/revision information is sent each time a new A10 connection is set up—regardless of whether or not a PDSN or PCF has actually been changed or updated since last connection. Relatively, revisions or changes to a PDSN or PCF happen infrequently. Given the volume and the frequency of interconnections between a given PDSN and PCF, such an approach wastes valuable transmission bandwidth by communicating redundant version/revision information that has not changed since the last connection.
Furthermore, conventional messaging systems commonly provide only limited mechanisms for indicating information related to hardware or software features or versions. In some systems, it may be useful or necessary for one peer—a PCF, for example—to alert another peer—a PSDN—to the presence or utilization of some critical particular feature or features. Under conventional approaches, such information usually must be communicated on a feature-by-feature basis, with each such feature being related via an independent message or message block. The ability to append such information within a single message, or to subsume all such alerts within a single update, is not currently provided. Again, this results in the repeated transmission of redundant data, which reduces overall system throughput.
As a result, there is a need for a system that provides each entity in a wireless network, such as a wireless RAN, with timely messaging regarding any hardware/software revisions or changes in the peers of that entity. Such messaging should be provided in an efficient and robust manner; one that exchanges necessary or desired information only once, when one of the peers is revised, upgraded or reset—providing reliable, high-performance wireless communications in an easy and cost-effective manner.